MURRAY, Ky. — A Murray State University student is headed to the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in mid-June to participate in NASA’s RockOn event — a workshop where students and faculty spend seven days building sounding rockets to launch into space.
Tyler Stoffel — assistant professor of engineering at MSU and principal research engineer for the University of Kentucky’s Computational Thermophysics and Fluids Laboratory — spoke about the upcoming program Wednesday and highlighted the MSU student’s achievements.
“This is definitely the first time somebody from MSU has went to this event — perhaps in western Kentucky as well,” Stoffel said.
He added that, when UK reached out to MSU about the workshop, Stoffel knew exactly who to send — Christopher Puckett, a School of Engineering student.
On June 10, Murray State University student Christopher Puckett prepares to attend NASA’s RockOn workshop, where groups will build and launch their own sounding rockets.
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“He’s the most interested and most dedicated person I’ve had in class so far to getting into aerospace and NASA-related events,” Stoffel said. “He was the obvious choice because of his interest and his dedication to it.”
Puckett explained that he has been interested in space and engineering all of his life. He added that he has always had a love for building things and spent many summers watching various space documentaries.
“I was researching different types of engineering — because I knew I just wanted to do engineering — when I saw aerospace engineering,” Puckett said. “Seeing the work that NASA does — it’s inspiring. And whenever I saw that, I just knew that it was my calling.”
In addition to the hands-on experience students will participate in, Stoffel said the program will improve Puckett’s chances at further opportunities in the future.
“This has a very good chance of helping Christopher secure an internship at a NASA center, which would be a very big deal for him, and I try to help him do that as well,” he said.
Puckett will soon begin his junior year and said his favorite part about attending MSU has been the faculty and student body experience.
A social media post from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility shows a previous RockOn workshop rocket launch.
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Facebook
“At MSU, we built a strong group and community to where everyone comes, and they share a love of engineering — it can be aerospace, mechanical, electrical, anything — but everyone knows that we’re all here to find our passion and just do what we love to do. Especially with professors like Dr. Stoffel, it’s been an amazing experience,” he said.
Puckett added that he is excited for the RockOn workshop and looks forward to having the opportunity to work with others in the field. Students at the event will be put into groups of three and will build the rockets over the span of a week, launching their experiments into suborbital space on day eight.
“I do want to give a big thank you to the University of Kentucky and NASA Kentucky, because they could have just sent another UK student, but here I am — I get the opportunity to go with them, and I’m more than excited for it,” Puckett said. “Getting these types of opportunities and being able to work with other people to see what it’s going to be like — it’s a great opportunity.”
Stoffel said that he is similarly grateful to NASA Kentucky and UK’s team for inviting MSU to send one of its students. The workshop will take place from June 17 through June 25, and Puckett said he will be working with Natalia Martinez and Luc Powell from UK.